OCW paywall not under consideration.
CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 28, 2010 -- A handful of recent news articles have reported that MIT is considering placing its MIT OpenCourseWare program behind a paywall. These articles stemmed from remarks about e-learning that were made by an MIT administrator at a recent educational conference. The articles were based on a misinterpretation of the administrator’s remarks.
The content on MIT OpenCourseWare will continue to be free and available online, as it has always been. Like other universities, MIT is constantly exploring new educational opportunities—including the possibility of e-learning projects—but MIT has no plans to charge for access to MIT OpenCourseWare content.
An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality university-level educational materials – often including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams – organized as courses. While OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiatives typically do not provide a degree, credit, or certification, or access to instructors, the materials are made available under open licenses for use and adaptation by educators and learners around the world.
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of substantially all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate courses—more than 2,000 in all—available on the Web, free of charge, to any user in the world. OCW receives an average of 1.5 million web site visits per month from more than 215 countries and territories worldwide. To date, more than 65 million visitors have accessed the free MIT educational materials on the site or in translation.
